Jon Schaefer started thinking seriously about closing the ski areas his family owns and runs, Berkshire East in Massachusetts and Catamount Ski Area in New York, earlier this week. Schaefer’s wife works at the area’s local hospital and its small, rural health care system was being inundated by patients who’d contracted COVID-19, or coronavirus, the outbreak that’s rapidly spreading around the world. Although there were no known cases of the virus among the ski areas’ employees or guests, Schaefer felt like he had a duty to act.
“We had regional cases and it was heavily on my radar,” Schaefer, the general manager for the two resorts, told POWDER on Friday. “As this became more of a problem, I started to weigh heavily on how we should assess our role in the spread of this illness.”
So, he did what he felt he had to: He announced the immediate closure of Berkshire East and Catamount, effective at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 12. Schaefer said it came down to wanting to protect the families and individuals who frequent the mountains as well as the staff, many of whom—ranging from ticket sellers to ski patrol to mechanics—are older in age, making them more susceptible to complications from contracting COVID-19. The closure comes several weeks before the resorts were slated to shutter for the winter season, resulting in what Schaefer estimated to be a fairly significant financial loss of possibly tens of thousands of dollars.